Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

1,000 Island City Gets Number One Rating For Its River Diving By Stephen Weir (August Diver Magazine) First it was an American on-line dive magazine, then it was a chain of Canadian newspapers and now, Germany’s largest circulation magazine Der Spiegel is the city of Brockville, Ontario to discover why this is one of the world’s best freshwater diving destinations.   The St Lawrence River community has shipwrecks, shore diving, good visibility in warm water, a growing underwater sculpture park and just recently opened state-of-the art Aquatrarium   (both an aquarium and shipwreck attraction).   Diver Magazine layout - photo by Roy Letts ‘It’s not common knowledge, but Canada offers some of the best diving in the world, in some of the most untouched marine environments. So, what are the best dive sites in Canada? “ asks Scuba Diver Life, a California online dive magazine. “Brockville! Just across the St. Lawrence River from New York State, along a stretch of the r

  Being Ousted from the Best Seat at the Griffin Poetry Prize Bernard Gauthier (Bravo TV) and myself arrived early at the Griffin Poetry Prize award dinner in Toronto on June 7. The Distillery District hall doors had only been open for a few minutes. We were one of the first to be welcomed by Scott and Krystyne Griffin, the founders and funders of the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry. The prize is the largest annual award for a single book of poetry in the world. I had trouble hearing our hosts because of the Mexican mariachi band that had just begun to tune up. I am sure I would have heard all the details about the seating arrangements if I leaned a little closer in. We entered the large exposed brick space that was once used for the fermentation of millions of gallons of liquor. The room soon began to fill with everyone I have read in the past 10 years. Michael Ondaatje, Margaret Atwood, Christopher Dwedney, Richard Gwyn. There were TV stars journalists, and former governor

  . The Low Down On An Upcoming Scuba Show (May issue of Diver Magazine) By Stephen Weir  A brand new Canadian based underwater TV series is descending to new heights thanks in part to its use of cutting edge video cameras. The Outdoor Life Network (OLN) has begun airing  Descending,  a scuba adventure TV series that uses the new Red One digital video camera to get hyper-real footage from the bottom of Lake Ontario to the wild waters of New Zealand. The Red One, built by the Red Digital Cinema Camera Company (founded by Oakley owner Jim Jannard ) is in the vanguard of the next generation of digital broadcast cameras.  Relatively small, pretty cheap ($25,000, not counting the  70 lb Gates waterproof housing) the Red has the ability to shoot highly detailed video images in very low light, far outstripping the capability of high def TV sets to show such amazing quality.  Underwater the Red One sees and records images more accurately than the human eye. This y